When my mom was growing up, she had to mend the rice fields and sell cigarettes for a living. Her father, my grandpa, was serving in the Vietnam War and could not provide for the family. After the 5th grade, she had to drop out of school to juggle several jobs in order to provide for her 4 other siblings. Until she had the chance to immigrate to Canada, her days were spent walking in the mud with a basket of grains on her head, getting whistled at by geezers buying her cigars and wandering the streets hoping someone would buy chewing gum from her shabby stand. Her family did not have enough money for everyone to have food, clothes, shoes, school supplies, undergarments, or even soap to bathe with. Today, she still remembers drooling from walking past a fruit stand or food vendor. She would stand in front of a noodle shop and look at other people eat the food she can only dream about.
![Picture](/uploads/6/0/9/5/60954725/published/img-1704.jpg?1487609595)
Mi Quang is a staple noodle dish in Da Nang, Vietnam. Citizens of Da Nang eat Mi Quang for any meal of the day. Think of it as a comfort food. While there is no “right” way to cook this noodle dish, anyone can agree that is best made at home. Some like the dish on the dry side, some like it soupier. But Mi Quang is what we think of when think of the city.
My mom used to watch people eat Mi Quang whenever she travels by foot to Da Nang to work. The aromatic broth, shrimp, pork, crispy rice cracker, roasted peanuts and freshly made noodles caused her stomach to rumble. However, she’s only had it once in her life before immigrating. Now that we are in the states and are much better off, she makes Mi Quang almost every other week. She would wake up at 3 a.m. to get started on the broth to make sure all the ingredients are fused perfectly together. Then she would hand-make the noodles and cook each meat separately. By 10 a.m. when the rest of our family is awake, Mi Quang is steaming hot on the dining table, ready to be eaten. Sometimes she cries thinking about her hard past. About the time she earned enough money for one bowl of Mi Quang at the age of 13 and shared it amongst her and her 4 other siblings. About the time she was dying to have a piece of shrimp from the bowl but knew her younger sisters were craving it too. This dish represents her past and her future.
(Side note: This is my mother's version of Mi Quang. It disappeared into my stomach soon after this picture was taken)
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Below is the recipe that I retrieved from her. Please keep in mind that there are a few “secret ingredients” that she would not let me reveal. Also, the measurements will be based on Vietnamese standards. To me, home is in this recipe.
Serving: 10 bowls
Ingredients:
800 g – Mi Quang noodles (Flat rice noodles about 5 mm wide)
2 – Baked rice paper (Search “banh trang nuong” or “banh da nuong” for reference)
200 g – pork bones
150 g – chicken breast
500 g – pork belly
500 g – fresh shrimp
1 – egg
½ - onion
40 ml – cashew oil
10 g – turmeric powder
6 g – chili powder
3 g – salt
40 g – secret homemade seasoning that can’t be revealed
5 g – pepper
15 g – sugar
40 ml – fish sauce (nuoc mam. Note: brand matters!)
10 ml – oyster sauce
2 cloves – garlic
1 – red onion Desired amount of green onions
20 g – roasted peanuts
1– banana blossom (shredded)
Lime and preferred hot sauce to tastev
My mom used to watch people eat Mi Quang whenever she travels by foot to Da Nang to work. The aromatic broth, shrimp, pork, crispy rice cracker, roasted peanuts and freshly made noodles caused her stomach to rumble. However, she’s only had it once in her life before immigrating. Now that we are in the states and are much better off, she makes Mi Quang almost every other week. She would wake up at 3 a.m. to get started on the broth to make sure all the ingredients are fused perfectly together. Then she would hand-make the noodles and cook each meat separately. By 10 a.m. when the rest of our family is awake, Mi Quang is steaming hot on the dining table, ready to be eaten. Sometimes she cries thinking about her hard past. About the time she earned enough money for one bowl of Mi Quang at the age of 13 and shared it amongst her and her 4 other siblings. About the time she was dying to have a piece of shrimp from the bowl but knew her younger sisters were craving it too. This dish represents her past and her future.
(Side note: This is my mother's version of Mi Quang. It disappeared into my stomach soon after this picture was taken)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Below is the recipe that I retrieved from her. Please keep in mind that there are a few “secret ingredients” that she would not let me reveal. Also, the measurements will be based on Vietnamese standards. To me, home is in this recipe.
Serving: 10 bowls
Ingredients:
800 g – Mi Quang noodles (Flat rice noodles about 5 mm wide)
2 – Baked rice paper (Search “banh trang nuong” or “banh da nuong” for reference)
200 g – pork bones
150 g – chicken breast
500 g – pork belly
500 g – fresh shrimp
1 – egg
½ - onion
40 ml – cashew oil
10 g – turmeric powder
6 g – chili powder
3 g – salt
40 g – secret homemade seasoning that can’t be revealed
5 g – pepper
15 g – sugar
40 ml – fish sauce (nuoc mam. Note: brand matters!)
10 ml – oyster sauce
2 cloves – garlic
1 – red onion Desired amount of green onions
20 g – roasted peanuts
1– banana blossom (shredded)
Lime and preferred hot sauce to tastev
![Picture](/uploads/6/0/9/5/60954725/published/20141121-103812-my-quang-1-520x348.jpg?1487610741)
Directions:
- Separate the chicken breast from its bone fragment. Wash the bones and set it into a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Discard the water and add in 600 ml of new water along with onions, secret seasoning, and salt.
- Cut the chicken breast and pork belly into bite-sized pieces. Marinate them with 1 clove minced garlic, 40 ml fish sauce, 10 g turmeric powder, 5 g chili powder, 20 g secret seasoning, 10 ml oyster sauce. Let it marinate from 20-25 minutes.
- Prepare the shrimp by taking off the heads and deveining the shrimps. Marinate with pepper and secret seasoning.
- Heat a pan up with the cashew oil, then add the other clove of garlic (minced) into the pan. Once the garlic produces a nice smell, add in the marinated chicken and pork belly. It will take about 3 minutes for the meat to cook thoroughly.
- Put the egg into the pot of chicken broth from Instruction #1. When the egg is cooked, take it out and peel off the shell.
- Take some of the broth from the pot and transfer it to the pan. Stir fry in the shrimp and egg for about 20 minutes.
- Prepare the noodles by boiling it just like pasta.
- Have the noodles in the bowl and scoop the chicken, pork belly, and shrimp mixture into the bowl. Pour some broth into the bowl, as much as you like. Like I said, some like it dry and some like it soupy.
- Sprinkle some of the crushed peanuts and chopped onions onto the top. Break apart the baked rice paper into pieces around 1-2 inches wide and place them around the edge of the bowl. Add pepper, hot sauce (I like to use sate) and lime to taste.
- Mi Quang is typically served with raw herbs/veggies. Most of the time, people eat them with Water Spinach (rau muong), shredded banana blossom (hoa chuoi), lettuce, rau kinh gioi (Google said it’s called Elsholtzia ciliate but I’m not sure what that is in English), and basil.